Chapter 11: In The Dreamtime
Cody's POV
Everything was quiet in our home. It was rather late at night and every one of us were all wiped out after the Halloween gathering at Regent's Park. The very second my body felt the soft mattress of my bed, I was immediately out like a light. To avoid a potential stomach ache the following morning, I decided to save the sweets I had gotten from the event until tomorrow. Some of my other siblings including Dizzy and Dee Dee however didn't hesitate to stuff their faces until their buckets were almost half empty. I guess they were never told that sugar before bed supposedly increases the risk of nightmares. Not even a few seconds after I passed out on my bed, I blinked to suddenly find myself in an open field surrounded with a sky of clouds, so bright I thought this was what Heaven looked like. I felt the soft grass on my hands as I trailed them across the tiny forest of green blades until I suddenly felt the recognisable hardback paper of my sketchbook's cover. I looked down to see it on the ground with one of my sketching pencils next to it. I picked the little book of blank pages up and opened it, pencil in the other hand. I tried to look around to see if I could see anything that would give me an idea to draw. The field itself looked empty for miles, I couldn't even see any trees in the horizon. I decided to sketch out a tree I once remembered seeing back when my mom once took me to Yateley Common Country Park. As soon as I had finished adding the details to the leaves, I suddenly saw myself shrouded in a shadow and looked up to see something that wasn't there before: a tree exactly like the one I had drawn right in front of me.
I stared at the huge plant of timber and leaves stunned before looking back down at my sketchbook. Wanting to test a theory I had in my mind, I turned to my left and sketched out a simple cube on another blank page, keeping an eye on the area in front of me and when I connected the drawing's last line, a cube roughly about the size of a kitchen oven materialised in front of me. My theory was right as I came to the conclusion that I was dreaming with my sketchbook having the ability to make anything I draw appear in front of me.
I wanted to see if I could explore out of my current dream scenario so I opened another blank page and drew myself with a pair of angel wings as I felt something on my back seconds later. I glanced behind me to see a pair of pure white wings fluttering delicately. I practiced some flaps to get used to them, slowly quickening the pace of my new wings and didn't even notice I was becoming airborne until I realised that my feet weren't touching the ground. I looked down to see that I was hovering a short distance above the grass. I flapped my wings some more to gain more height and even practiced a few swoops before I then flew up to the clouds and didn't stop until I passed them. I no longer saw the fields of grass below me as they were covered by a blanket of clouds like I was above a floor of cotton. The only two things surrounding me were the pure blue sky and the bright sun, until I noticed a trail of gold glittering across the sky. The source of the trail then slowly came towards me until I saw who it was.
Dorothy with a pair of wings herself, these ones looking like those of a butterfly fluttered in front of me and smiled upon recognising me. "Hi Cody!" I suddenly heard her say, her voice having a baby-like lisp. With this being a dream, anything was possible. I waved at her, returning a smile of my own when she faced her left and her face fell into concern. "Oh no! Da Vinci's in twouble! Come on!" My eyebrows raised as Dorothy gestured me to follow her, which I did so. We both sailed above the clouds until I saw a hole in the mass of white condensed vapour. Lowering down to it, I saw Da Vinci being forced off a cliff as she fell into a mass of what looked like a mix of paint. The ones who had shoved her off were all humans and anthros in suits, surrounded by many of Da Vinci's paintings, all having tags on them with a score rating of zero. My only assumption being that these were art critics of the harshest category and they were seemingly punishing her for making art that was apparently "atrocious" in their eyes, emphasizing Da Vinci's anxiety of being judged for her work. The Dalmatian in question was slowly sinking into the paint and the mass was now up to her neck.
"N-No! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Da Vinci screamed out in terror, holding out a hand drenched in the coloured substance. I immediately acted fast and swooped down to the quicksand of paint, hand outstretched for Da Vinci's. Before her head could go under, I managed to grab her hand and flutter upwards, slowly pulling her out of the mass until it no longer had a grip on her. Returning to the clouds with Dorothy, I managed to hold Da Vinci in my arms as she hugged me tightly. "Cody! Oh, thank you so much!" She said gratefully as I too held her close, not caring about the paint on her body getting on me. That was when I saw Dolly in the distance performing tricks on her skateboard which had angel wings like mine on the sides instead of wheels, keeping her levitated above the clouds. Making sure to keep hold of Da Vinci, I managed to draw her on my sketchbook with a pair of wings so she could stay afloat with us without having to hold on to me. We then caught up with Dolly who grinned as she noticed us.
"Hey, cool wings, Cody!" She commented on my dream-created limbs for flight. "Wanna see if you and I can do some tricks?" She asked to which I nodded eagerly. She then headed forward still on her skateboard as I tailed her before doing loops around her in a barrel roll. Dolly then leaned backwards, making herself soar upwards and we both performed corkscrews around each other, causing glitter to form around us, leaving a trail of gold just like Dorothy did. We then faced each other and high fived, causing an explosion of stars to flash from us. "Bow Wacka Wow, that was awesome!" Dolly exclaimed before pulling me into a hug.
Our little hug was suddenly interrupted by a distant scream as we both looked in the direction of the noise. It was that very scream I remembered many weeks ago in the television studio…
"Destiny!" I said in fear as I flew as fast as I could with Dolly, Da Vinci and Dorothy quickly following behind. A tall mountain coated in snow entered my vision and so did the Triple D at a cliff of the mountain joined by Dylan, with Destiny clinging onto a rock of the cliff wall. The other two and Dylan attempting to reach out to the girl clinging on for dear life, neither of their hands were able to reach for her. "Hang on, Destiny!" I called out to her as I nosedived to her. Deja Vu, Dallas and Dylan looked up at me coming down with looks of relief. Destiny finally lost her grip, but I was able to catch her before she fell even a metre and I flapped up onto the cliff surface, Destiny hugging me tightly, sniffling. "O-Oh Cody! I was like, so scared!" She sobbed as I rubbed her back, Dallas and Deja Vu embracing us, turning this into a group hug. "Thank goodness for you, Cody! Destiny could've been hurt or worse if you weren't here!" Dylan praised as he patted my head.
"Thanks guys! I-" My response was cut off by a faint rumbling. The cliff surface below us soon started to quake and we heard crackling rocks nearby. We all faced the mountain spire to see it break apart and collapse into boulders, a huge silhouette rising from the newly made hole and all our faces fell in horror as we made out who it was.
A colossal beast composed of the heads of the man I once considered my dad and Cruella De Vil on a grey skeletal body arose from the broke spire, both heads sneering nastily down at us before letting out a guttural roar, flames flickering from their mouths.
"WUN!" Dorothy yelled out in terror. None of us needed to be told twice as I drew wings on Dylan and the Triple D as quickly as possible and we were all speeding away from the mountain in flight. None of us looked back until we heard a monstrous scream from the abomination and we glanced behind to see it tailing after us with a pair of bat like wings and it was slowly catching up to us. If none of us did anything now, it would be curtains for us.
"Dorothy! Get the others to safety! I'll take care of this!" I instructed, knowing that this would be stupid idea but what other choice did we have. "B-But Cody, you'll get hurt!" She protested as I pulled out my sketchbook. "Don't worry! I got an idea!" I drew myself once more but this time with a full set of armour and a sword as the suit of reflective silver appeared on me with the weapon of choice appearing in my free hand. I glanced back to see the Dalmatians flying off to safety before I faced the demon before me, sword in both hands and a snarl on my face.
"Alright, Devil Man-lady. Let's rock and roll."
The Orthrus-like monster swiped at me with a hand that I quickly dodged before soaring towards the beast and slashing with my sword, managing to land a gash on the Cruella head's cheek. The two heads inhaled and bellowed, causing a torrent of fire to rocket towards me but I stood in my place and held my sword outwards, the flames hitting the blade as the metal absorbed it and circulated within. I slashed forward as all the absorbed combusted heat was propelled out in the form of a shock wave and went straight through one of the tyrant's arms as it fell limp, disappearing into the clouds. The monster roared in agony as it clutched the wound with it's remaining arm. With it distracted, I lunged towards it but the demon seemed to expect me attempt to rush it as it swung one of it's wings at me and swatted me away from it. I nearly lost my focus but was able to re-orient myself in the air as it headed for me with both mouths open, attempting to possibly crush me with either head's teeth. I rushed upwards with my sword held out as it plunged into one of the eyes belonging to the head of my former dad. Blood pooled from it's ruined eye as I pulled the sword back out and slashed, slicing the surface of the head's other eye, blinding it. The Cruella head gnashed at me but I quickly flew behind just in time before rushing along with giving one huge slash as my sword's blade hit the napes of both the beast's necks, crimson spewing out from the cuts, the colossal terror reaching behind with it's one arm to try and block out the bleeding to no avail as it finally became disoriented and plummeted with me diving down straight after it, both the demon and I heading towards the grassy fields under the clouds when it finally collided with the ground with a quaking thud.
And then at last, with my sword aimed directly at it's chest…
The beast writhed in pain for a brief amount of time until it's struggles slowly got weaker and weaker until finally it went limp. The monster's skin slowly turning a charcoal black and cracking like a broken statue when it suddenly fell apart to ashes which disintegrated to nothing, leaving nothing left of my foe.
And then, I saw them in the distance. All my Dalmatian brothers and sisters joined by Dorothy, Dolly, Dylan and the Triple D rushed over to me until I was surrounded and lifted upwards and tossed in the sky as they all cheered victoriously. Many of them chanting my name.
"Cody! Cody! Cody! Cody!"
I felt absolutely ecstatic. It's like my biggest fears had all but been disposed of and in a way, I had disposed of my family's. All I could do was laugh as they continued to call my name in cheers.
"Cody! Cody! Cody! Cody! Cody! Cody!..."
"Cody? Cody?" I felt myself being shaken slightly accompanied by a voice saying my name. I blinked to find that it was now morning and Dolly was stood over me, hands on me as she smiled at me.
"Up and at 'em, bro! Got another fun day ahead of us!" Dolly encouraged me, seemingly forgetting that she was still in her pyjamas. With such an amazing and thrilling dream having woken me in a golden mood, I got out of my bed, got dressed and followed my big sister downstairs to breakfast.